Former and current U.S. air traffic controllers say the Trump administration's focus on new equipment doesn't address problems like grueling schedules and stagnating pay that are hurting morale.

It will take $31.5 billion to build a brand-new air traffic control system for the country, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told members of the House Wednesday, the first time the department has publicly put a dollar figure on the project.

Given the meteoric rise of AI applications, the control tower may be ripe for full automation in the near future. Human intervention would be the exception, not the rule. Today co